My House Beautiful: Calder laneway home designed to fit community

One would think if any home would be easy to find, this would be the one. With mirror-like polished steel siding on one side of the house and striking dark shingles on another, this two-storey home is both dramatic and inviting, seducing you as soon as you cast your eyes on it. But even armed with the address and a picture of this Calder home, and even though it is imaginatively different than its neighbours, it’s almost impossible to locate.

One would think if any home would be easy to find, this would be the one.

With mirror-like polished steel siding on one side of the house and striking dark shingles on another, this two-storey home is both dramatic and inviting, seducing you as soon as you cast your eyes on it. But even armed with the address and a picture of this Calder home, and even though it is imaginatively different than its neighbours, it’s almost impossible to locate.

A tree is framed by a window in Jesse Watson and German Antonio Gomez-Decuir's house.Bloom, David/Postmedia

A nearby church steeple is visible from the window desk.Bloom, David/Postmedia

Being a laneway home helps it camouflage into the surrounding community, as one would typically expect address numbers to go up or down, rather than drawing you into the lane between city blocks. In addition, the homeowners intentionally built the house so it would integrate with the neighbourhood’s historical context.

“We wanted to tie it into the landscape with the older homes around it,” said owners Jesse Watson and German Antonio Gomez-Decuir. “We tried to maintain the context from the main street, so you don’t see the home, and the respect for the heritage of the area is maintained.”

Calder’s ties to the past — linked to the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in the early 1900s and the development of the Hudson’s Bay Company Reserve — drew the married couple to the neighbourhood. They bought a 1931 arts and crafts bungalow and received a historic designation for it one year ago, which has helped spur them to restore the property.

But the enterprising pair needed a revenue stream to fulfil their renovation dream. Considering that the original home sat on a large double lot, and with the growing interest in laneway homes in Edmonton, they decided to remove the old laneway garage and create something in its place that would add to the neighbourhood.

Not only did the duo put in a lot of sweat equity once the laneway home reached the framing stage, Gomez-Decuir was the architect for the project, while Watson brought his planner’s expertise to the table. Fast forward to September 2016 — preparation for the laneway home began in April 2015 and construction started in June 2015 — and the new home was just about ready to rent, offering 680 square feet of livable space on the upper floor and a double garage below.

“We ended up renting it in one hour and it was not even finished yet,” said Watson. “But it was a real proud moment. We accomplished something different and people wanted to live here.”

While the exterior is definitely eye-catching, the interior grabs your attention as well. Done in a modern rustic style, the small space feels much larger due to the vaulted ceilings. Wood beams — which are structural in addition to being a decorative element — add to the warmth. Half the floor plan is open-concept, blending the kitchen and living spaces, while a pony wall serves as a divider to the other side, where a bedroom, bathroom and laundry area reside.

Space is creatively used. A built-in bar is nestled into one wall, and it becomes a focal point with patterned Italian tile — selected from sets of 12 tiles, with each of the 12 tiles in the set featuring a different design – capturing your attention. Between the bedroom and bathroom there’s another nook that houses a built-in desk for office space.

Storage space is carved into upper wall areas, giving the small space more room to store things than one would expect. Windows are strategically placed to take advantage of the sightlines while de-emphasizing views of the lane. Both the living and bedroom windows act as a frame for a 60-year-old spruce tree.

“Antonio designed it so the windows essentially become a painting, so that the tree is framed by the window — it’s like a living painting,” said Watson, adding that the bedroom window was placed higher than normal, so when someone wakes up in the morning they would have a chance to see birds perched on the tree.

Another living room window looks toward a neighbouring historic home, the Frederick Jones Residence, once the autumn leaves fall. The window in the office space allows one to see the steeple from nearby St. Edmund’s Parish.

But there’s more to this laneway house than just adding residential density and use existing land more wisely in a growing city.

The exterior’s dark shingles, which will eventually turn to a brownish-grey colour and provide the house with an aged cedar look, are environmentally friendly and made out of recycled hemp, with some additives included to help in the product’s binding process. They have a longer lifespan than your average shingles, and should last between 50 to 75 years. The home is also solar-ready, and plans are in the works to add solar electricity into the mix.

“We wanted to create something long-lasting as well as being environmentally friendly,” said Gomez-Decuir.

Other touches include a sliding, barn-type bedroom door that was once part of a nearby heritage property. A floating vanity in the bathroom makes the space feel larger, and a one-piece washer and dryer combo helps utilize the limited space.

“We wanted to design a nice space that’s really functional,” said Watson, “a place where we would want to live.”

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